It’s the return of the Green Hell’s showpiece event as Lamborghini lock out the front row for the first time, with Max Verstappen making the headlines before we’ve even begun. Can he cement his status as one of the true greats of our sport with a win here and break Mercedes’ longstanding curse that has stood now for a decade? It will certainly be no easy feat, as this year’s edition has attracted a record high of 41 SP9 entries all set to battle it out over the next 24 Hours.

Thomas Preining leads overall for Porsche in the #911 ‘Grello’ machine after the pole-sitting Lamborghini of Bortolotti suffered a puncture on the opening lap of the GP-Strecke and the sister #130 that it shared the front row with served a 32 second stop and go penalty for jumping the start.

The only major incident so far was the #75 Max Kruse Racing AT1 Audi R8 which crashed hard at Flugplatz in the hands of Dominik Fuger after blowing a tire earlier in the lap.

Leading the 150+ strong field was the pair of Team Abt’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo IIs, with Mirko Bortolotti’s #84 getting the honour of being the first to hit the throttle pedal ahead of fellow Italian Marco Mapelli’s #130 who held position as they ran through the GP-Strecke for the first time.

Drama soon followed, as behind the leaders immediate drama struck the #99 ROWE BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Dan Harper, who spun at the bottom of the GP Layout after contact with the #80 Mercedes of Maro Engel, and a few seconds later Bortolotti would hit trouble, so much that he wouldn’t even make the Nordschleife, as in a disastrous start for Lamborghini contact with the #3 of Dani Juncadella in the very first corner gave the pole sitter a puncture, forcing him to pit immediately and drop to the back of the field handing the sister car the lead, which it would hold across the first lap.

Meanwhile Kevin Estre was on his usual charge, moving up to third in the ‘Grello’ #911 Porsche by the time they hit Flugplatz and challenging Daniel Juncadella’s #3 Winward Mercedes that he shared with Max Verstappen.

At the end of the first lap Mapelli still led in the #130 ahead of Juncadella’s #3, with Maximillian Paul’s #7 Lamborghini moving up to third ahead Estre’s #911.

Paul soon closed up and after tactical negotiation of traffic moved up to 2nd and as the cars ran onto the start of their third lap was charging up behind Mapelli, restoring Lamborghini’s 1-2 hold on the race and the two finally began to find some breathing room from Estre and Juncadella.

Ford hadn’t exactly been making headway thus far, and Frank Stippler didn’t help the cause by making contact at Hohenrein with a slower class car, as up front Estre started closing on the #7 and #130, lapping up to a second faster than both at times through the first hour and eventually muscled his way past the #7 – though not without minor contact – and found himself fighting for the race lead in another one of his trademark opening stints.

Meanwhile the #35 Walkenhorst Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo slowed on the Nordschleife with fuel supply issues, and lost time in the pits as the team tried to fix the problem.

Pitstops soon followed with a good number of SP9 runners making an early stop after five laps, including the M3 Touring of Jens Klingmann as the delayed #84 Lamborghini set a new overall fastest lap. Other pitters included the #84 and former winners Scherer Sport PHX’s #16 of Christopher Haase which had been running in the top 5 earlier and the iconic Dacia Logan #300

Having stayed out, the race leading #130 Lamborghini of Marco Mapelli also hit trouble, as the team received penalty for jumping the start and pitted the following lap, with Mapelli handing the car over to Nick Yelloly having elected not to serve it’s 32 second stoppage.

As the first hour drew to a close the top three all made their first pitstops, with Max Verstappen notably climbing aboard the #3, relieving Daniel Juncadella of the drving duties. Maximillian Paul and Kevin Estre also stepped out of their cars, with Thomas Preining and Luca Engslter replacing them in their respective cars. Both overtook the #3 in the stops while Adam Christodoulou’s #26 Team Bilstein Mercedes emerging in between Preining and Engstler, giving Verstappen something to fight for. He spent the next laps passing Christodoulou, and then Christian Engelhart, the two sticking neck-and-neck for laps on end before the Dutchman finally got the move done at the Sabine Schmnitz curve.

Ahead, the top 6 were all among those who pitted at the first opportunity, meaning Thomas Neubauer’s #45 Kondo Realize Racing led breifly ahead of Christopher Mies’ #67 Ford Mustang, with Nicki Thiim running third for Aston Martin with Christian Krognes in 4th.

But with Preining catching the group of Krognes, Mies and Klingmann the eventually turned what was an incredible three way fight into a four way fight, and the Porsche soon cleared them all and gave itself a huge advantage over the rest of the field still running with more fuel than those around it.

Flugplatz then claimed its first victim, the #75 Max Kruse Racing Audi R8 Evo II AT1 class machine of Dominik Fuger blew a tire on the approach up to the crest and lost the rear, slamming into the barriers and spraying debris all over the track.

As the third hour approached, the #45, #67 and the #64 of Frank Stippler all pitted, handing the race lead to Preining in the #911, with Stippler pitting the next lap seeing Verstappen move up to 2nd overall ahead of Christian Engelhart’s #7 Lamborghini who ran third. Fourth was Adam Christodoulou’s #26 with the top five completed by Fabian Schiller’s #65 Ford.

image credit: REZAG, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons